Comment A canary test for thorough comprehension? (Score 5, Interesting) 123
If a student was reading the assignment using something that didn't render html colours then he would read that instruction and figure it's a test to see if he read the assignment instructions completely.
Some bands (Van Halen?) used to do that, and maybe still do. They have multi-page technical specifications for what they need at a venue for equipment or lighting, whatever else, and somewhere in the middle of all of this fine print they'll put something like "We require a bowl with exactly six red jelly beans in the dressing room." Then when they arrive to do the concert if they don't find six red jelly beans in the dressing room they know that their specifications had not been completely read and could then take steps to verify that what really mattered to them had actually been done, whereas if the jelly beans were present then they knew that the specifications had been thoroughly scrutinized and acted on.
The chances of that having happened here are probably nil, of course.